Brady Workshop

On 11 August, there will be a workshop in honour of Ross T. Brady's retirement and his logical work. The workshop will be held in Arts West 561.

Confirmed speakers are Graham Priest (CUNY), Ed Mares (Wellington), Lloyd Humberstone (Monash), Tomasz Kowalski (La Trobe), and Dave Ripley (Monash). The schedule is below.

10:00-11:15  Graham Priest Berry's Paradox Again...

11:15-12:30  Lloyd Humberstone Semantics Without Toil?

12:30-2:00 Lunch at Potter Cafe

2:00-3:15 Dave Ripley TBA

3:15-3:45 Coffee break at House of Cards

3:45-5:00 Tomasz Kowalski TBA: Truly Basic Algebras

5:00-6:15 Ed Mares An Algebraic Analysis of Meaning Containment

Titles and abstracts

Lloyd Humberstone -- Semantics Without Toil?

Abstract: The present discussion takes up an issue raised in Section 5 of Ross Brady and Penelope Rush's paper `Four Basic Logical Issues' concerning the (claimed) triviality of showing soundness and completeness for a logic in a metalanguage employing at least as much logical vocabulary as the object logic, where the metalogical behaviour of the common logical vocabulary is as in the object logic. (The Brady--Rush paper appeared in Review of Symbolic Logic 2 (2009), 488--508.)

Tomasz Kowalski -- TBA: Truly Basic Algebras

Abstract: Weakly associative relation algebras (which I called TBAs
just for this talk) are a generalisation of relation algebras. The
interest in them stems from the fact that - unlike relation algebras - 
they all can be obtained from concrete algebras of binary relations
(hence "TRULY basic algebras"). I will show that a natural logic of
weakly associative relation algebras is precisely the positive minimal
relevant logic B (hence "truly BASIC algebras"). 

Ed Mares -- An Algebraic Analysis of Meaning Containment

Abstract: Ross and I (and Andrew Brennan) have  long talked about formulating a theory of meaning that supports his logic of meaning containment (MC) and its content semantics. In this paper I propose structural conventionalism for this job. I use some very simple ideas from algebraic logic to construct Brady-contents and other elements of the content models, and in so doing giving these elements philosophical interpretations. The underlying theory of meaning has conventionalist aspects that will be explored if there is time.

Graham Priest -- Berry's Paradox Again...

On and off over the years, Ross Brady and I have engaged in a dialogue on the question of Berry's Paradox and the Principle of Excluded Middle (PEM). What is at issue is whether the paradox can be avoided if one gives up the PEM. I say that it can not; he says that it can. This is important for the following reason. I endorse a solution to the paradoxes of self-reference rejecting Explosion. He endorses a solution rejecting the PEM. If I am right, then his solution cannot handle Berry's paradox, whilst mine can. Brady's most recent contribution to the debate is `The Use of Definitions and their Logical Representation in Paradox Derivation (Synthese, 2017, DOI: 10.1007/s11229-017-1362-7.) This paper is mine.